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Caroline Haley, Post-Colonial Literature, Spring 2015
The Man-eater of Malgudi | R. K. Narayan
SYNOPSIS
ANALYSIS
Originally published in 1961, The Man-eater of Malgudi
tells the tale, through the first-person voice, of a printer
named Nataraj who lives in the fictional South Indian
town of Malgudi. Nataraj lives a quiet and content life
until he meets the raucous Vasu, an aspiring taxidermist
who disrupts Nataraj’s daily printing business, forcibly
moves in above the shop, and wrecks havoc around town
as he seizes animals through unorthodox measures to
populate his demand for exotic stuffed pieces to be
shipped to buyers around the world. As Vasu
aggressively seeks out exotic animals for his business,
he comes across a sacred temple elephant that he is
determined to have as a prize for his collection. Nataraj
must figure out how to deter Vasu from his mission to
shoot the elephant at a sacred festival in town.
The Man-eater of Malgudi is one story of several that
take place in this town, a backdrop of colonized India
with which Narayan was intimately familiar. The story
explores multiple relationships, themes, and symbolic
elements that collide in conflict over the power of an
individual to change the action of someone more
powerful than he is. Although Narayan writes with a
light tone and comedic prose, Man-Eater questions the
role of the colonized in accepting the entrance of the
colonizing forces. The futility of Nataraj’s attempts to
confront Vasu, his lifestyle, and his line of work offer a
microcosm of the larger issues of colonialism. Nataraj
possesses “a lot of passion” for confronting Vasu, “but
little idea of what [to] do about it” (274).
Character Profile:
Nataraj
Character Profile:
Vasu
• Man-eater's main
character, Nataraj
gives us a portrait of
pre-colonized life that
comes into conflict
with the interruption
of Vasu. Despite a
lack of understanding
of Vasu's motives,
Nataraj remains
painfully aware of his
subordinate position.
This self-knowledge
legitimizes Nataraj's
character for he can
think and act with an
agency not often
afforded to figures of
a colonized nation.
• "I called pathetically
like a child at a fair
tugging the sleeve of
his elder, 'Vasu!'"
(174).
• Agressive,
overbearing, and
selfish, Vasu is
presented in direct
contrast to Malgudi's
inhabitants. He is
deeply unkind and is
not given any traits
that might suggest he
is acting out of a
veiled wish to make
Malgudi a better or
more sophisticated
town , as the colonial
narrative tends to try
and explain. Vasu's
motivations are purely
financial and in the
interest of himself
• "He might do
anything - bellow at
me, or laugh
scornfully, or rattle
my bones"(196).
Theme: Time
• Time is presented in
a distinctly different
manner than a
Western expectation.
Multiple times,
Nataraj's daily routine
is interrupted by
Vasu. Time is also
recognized through
Vasu's refusal to
"waste time" (195), a
concept that seems to
be foreign to Nataraj.
We also witness
Nataraj's calm
movement through
time and how
different he marks it.
• "The signal for me to
break off from
contemplation was the
jingle of ox-bells as
country carts forded
Nallappa's grove..."
(142).
Theme: Nature
• While perhaps an
obvious element,
nature in Man-eater,
in the form of Vasu's
animals, offers a
vulnurability for our
sympathies against
which we can receive
blatant cruelty without
any presupposed ties
to racial biases.
Because of how the
townspeople value
animals, specifically
Kumar the elephant,
the role of animals as
representative of
nature in Man-eater
operates to reflect
human nature as well
• "'Anyway, why does
he want to shoot the
elephant?' I asked.
'He says its more
useful dead...'" (274).
All quotes from: Narayan, R. K. A Tiger for Malgudi and The Man-Eater of Malgudi. New York: Penguin Books, 2009. Print
Caroline Haley, Post-Colonial Literature, Spring 2015
Further Reading
While there does not appear to be a vast selection of criticism written on The Man-eater of Malgudi specifically,
Narayan’s novels (including this one) do appear in a variety of articles about Indian writing as a whole. The 1960s
usher in several pieces exploring what makes the Indian novel unique or important, but by the 1980s, we start to see
closer-reads of Narayan’s novels themselves, rather than being lumped into an entire genre of work. Based on a brief
survey of literary critiques across several databases, current criticism of Narayan’s work certainly expanded
throughout the 1990s, and the 2000s brought continued critique of Narayan’s stylistic choices, specific thematic
elements in his work, or other typical points of commentary for most scholars of literature. C. N. Srinath appeared
multiple times and seems to be an internationally recognized critic on the works on Narayan as well.
Jaqadeswari, C. “The Conflict of Good and Evil in R. K. Narayan’s The Man-eater of Malgudi.” Language in
India. 12.5 (May 2012): 176. Web. Artemis. 7 Feb 2015.
Kothandaraman, Bala. “The Time Dimensions in R. K. Narayan’s Novels.” Journal of South Asian Literature. 22.2
(1987): 28-33. Web. JSTOR. 7 Feb 2015.
McArthur, Herbert. “In Search of the Indian Novel.” The Massachusetts Review. 2.4 (Summer 1961): 600-613.
Web. JSTOR. 7 Feb 2015.
Ray, Robert J. “A Look at Recent Indian Novels in English.” Books Abroad. 37.3 (Summer 1963): 286-288. Web.
JSTOR. 7 Feb 2015.
Srinath, C. N. “Myth in Contemporary Indian Fiction in English.” Indian Literature. 47.2 (2003): 149-159. Web.
JSTOR. 7 Feb 2015.
“…” “R. K. Narayan's Comic Vision: Possibilities and Limitations.” World Literature Today. 55.3 (1981): 416-419.
Web. JSTOR. 7 Feb 2015.
Author Bio:
Image1: “R. K. Narayan.” 2012.
FamousAuthors.org 8 February,
http://www.famousauthors.org/r-k-narayan
Although born and died in the same city, Rasipuram Krishnaswami Iyer
Narayanaswami was born on October 10th, 1906 in a town named Madras and
he died on May 13th, 2001 in that same town, now named Chennai. The span
of his lifetime and the shape of his work illustrate the same colonial impact
that changed the names of his city, from the British-colonial Madras to India’s
reclaimed Channai. R. K. Narayan published 15 novels, 6 short-story
collections, and multiple other works from mythology to non-fiction. Narayan
received the A. C. Benson Medal by the Royal Society of Literature in 1980
and he became an honorary member of the American Academy of Arts and
Letters in 1981. Observant, humorous, and prolific, Narayan left a legacy of
vibrant and accessible stories that nonetheless reveal a deeply personal pain of
man fighting for a well-deserved but long-deprived voice of a colonized
people.